Delta State completed its 11th Literacy Across the Curriculum: Institute for Teachers of Grades 6-12 on June 26.Delta State University’s College of Education and Human Sciences completed its 11th Literacy Across the Curriculum: Institute for Teachers of Grades 6-12 (LACI) on June 26.
LACI is provided through the support of the No Child Left Behind Act: Improving Teacher Quality State Grant. In total, 17 content area teachers from across Mississippi attended the 20-day institute. The intensive training included a variety of topics, lectures, activities and presentations on a wealth of relevant topics for today’s educators.
Mississippi Department of Education representative, Vincent Segalini, presented on College and Career Readiness Standards and planning appropriate instruction. The teachers also attended sessions related to literacy and college readiness skills in order for the participants to better prepare their students for not only major assessments, but also for their futures.
The most heavily embedded topics of the institute included word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension skills and how to actively incorporate them in their content areas. The goal of LACI was to enhance the participants’ repertoire of literacy knowledge, skills and dispositions to not only improve their students’ academic performance, but also to act as change agents within their schools and districts.
Upon completing the Institute, the teachers will provide staff development for their schools on their newly learned literacy skills in addition to completing an extensive Teacher Work Sample and collecting evidence of student learning in their classrooms. The teachers will reconvene for two additional follow-up sessions in the fall and spring to continue evaluating their planning, instruction and assessment, as well as to continue learning valuable literacy practices.
The administrative staff for 2015-16 included Dr. Merideth Van Namen as LACI director and Dr. Levenia Barnes and Pat Kirkpatrick as instructors. For more information on LACI, contact Van Namen at mvannamen@deltastate.edu or 662-846-4412.
